Saturday, August 22, 2009

What can one say about this movie ? I really liked this movie, although the huge number of songs got to me sometime in the middle. The movie is a sensitive portrayal of the triangle, with the girl in the middle, and you see how her emotions slowly change as she gets to know the person to whom she is married to. The movie was a big hit for Sanjay Leela Bhansali, since his earlier movie, Khamoshi, was a critical success, but did not do too well at the box office. The success of Hum Dil De Chukhe Hain Sanam propelled Sanjay Leela Bhansali into the big league, and encouraged him to make his mega opus, Devdas. HDDCS also gave a big boost to the career and reputation of its heroine, Aishwarya Rai. Before this, Aishwarya did not have a great reputation an a star who could emote well, and a role where she had an opportunity to show a range of emotions was something that she would have welcomed. The success of the movie gave her reputation a big boost, something that her male stars (Salman Khan and Ajay Devgun) did not get to the same extent.

The movie is about a unique triangle. Aishwarya lives in a joint family in the Rann of Kutch, one which is very musically inclined as her father is a famed classical musical Pandit, and at the same time, protective of their honour. Aishwarya is the favorite daughter of her father, who is strict otherwise. And then comes in Salman Khan to their mansion, to learn music from her father. He has come all the way from Italy for this purpose. Initially, Nandini (Aishwarya) does not like Salman, also because she had to give up her room for him, and they play a lot of pranks on each other.But, as you would expect, soon they start to love each other, fairly deeply. For some time, this love is hidden, but at one point, her father, Pandit Darbar (Vikram Gokhale) finds out about this love affair. He is not the least bit supportive, and asks Salman to leave (his gift to his teacher), and orders Nandini to forget Salman, as she is to marry other. And then Nandini is married off to Vanraj (Ajay Devgun); Vanraj had seen Nandini at a function and fell in love with her. However, immediately after the marriage, Vanraj gets to know about the love that Nandini had for Sameer (Salman Khan) and promises to take her to Italy to be with Sameer (after the initial anger).They arrive in Italy, and as you might expect, searching for a person in a different country is not easy; they run into various issues, getting robbed once, and Nandini gets shot during the attempt. Vanraj takes care of her when she is in hospital, and slowly Nandini starts to start seeing Vanraj for the caring and loving person he is.Eventually they find Sameer through his mother (Helen), and when Salman finds out, he is overjoyed. It is at this time that Nandini has to decide, is she still in love with Sameer, or is she now conscious of her role as Vanraj's wife, and now in love with him ?